Another black brother, George Floyd, has died at the hands of the police while dozens of onlookers and Mr. Floyd himself, begged for his life. In the wake of his murder protests have rightly formed in cities across our nation, because the killing has to stop. Racism must stop. We must come together to dismantle the racism inherent in American culture and woven through all major systems of our society. The magnitude of necessary change requires action from all of us, which the prophet Micah summarized as: doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly before our God. Each of us can and must speak out and do all that we can when we witness injustice in our neighborhoods, on our streets, and in our institutions. Not only must we intervene during and after this crisis, through our protest, but we must put our collective shoulders to the wheel to build new systems that are equitable and humane, and dismantle the old systems that continue to produce injustice, including police brutality that snuffed out the life of our brother, George Floyd. There is no task for the church that is more important at this time, more central to the Gospel, than to repent of systemic racism and all the other isms and phobias that have riddled our institutions, and collectively choose to do the hard work of systems justice, to love mercy, and as communities of faith, to walk humbly with our God.
The Church at Spring Forest and our residential community are multicultural and are committed to doing our part to dismantle racism. We are doing this through repentance for the sin of racism that infests American society, education focusing on the origins and effects of racism, and how to resist and dismantle racism for ourselves and neighbors, hospitality to our neighbors, equity in the culture and practices of our community, and advocacy and activism on behalf of our neighbors who are oppressed.
